Lulu Roman, gospel singer and longtime 'Hee Haw' castmember, dead at 78
Lulu Roman, a gospel singer and longtime star of country music variety show "Hee Haw," has died, a close friend confirmed to USA TODAY on April 24. She was 78.
Roman died April 23, in Bellingham, Washington, where she had moved last year to be closer to him.
The cause of death was not shared.
Getting her start as a scrappy comedian and Go-Go dancer in the Texas nightclub scene, Roman's fame grew exponentially when she became a regular on "Hee Haw" − the long-running comedy sketch show that offered country music stars guest spots to perform.
From 1969 well into the 1990s, Roman delighted "Hee Haw" audiences with wry humor and later a knack for gospel vocals. A bout with drug addiction sidelined her from the show briefly in the 1970s, after which she discovered Christianity and went on to record a dozen albums, including duets with Dolly Parton and George Jones.
Roman performed at the inauguration of President Ronald Reagan in 1980 and was inducted into the Country Gospel Music Hall of Fame in the late 1990s.
"Lulu Roman was a dear friend of 40 years and she will always be remembered as one who made people laugh and smile. What better tribute is there?" country music singer T. Graham Brown said of her death in a release. "I talked to her a few days ago. We shared one last laugh and I told her that I loved her. I will really miss her. May God bless her soul."
Equal parts singer and actress, Roman appeared on "Hee Haw Honeys," a spin-off of the original show, as well as the movie "Corky" and an episode of "The Love Boat."
Born Bertha Louise Hable in 1946, she was placed in an orphanage at two and a half years old, where she would live until she graduated high school.
Battling a thyroid issue and struggling with her weight throughout her life, Roman later discussed how growing up overweight led to bullying and how a dramatic slim-down in later years helped her to understand how sugar had been a coping mechanism during a tough childhood.
Roman is survived by her eldest son, Damon. Her youngest son, Justin, died in 2017.
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USA Today
39 minutes ago
- USA Today
Why all-Black rodeo events are 'so hot right now'
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Now, it's like the floodgates opened.' On the weekend of August 9, the Okmulgee Roy LeBlanc Invitational Rodeo marked its 70 th year, the legacy of two dozen Black businessmen, farmers and ranchers frustrated with the second-class treatment accorded to Black rodeo competitors and their fans in the 1950s. Tipton has been going to the Okmulgee rodeo ever since he was a kid riding along with his family's roundup club, the Oklahoma City Paraders. The equestrian-minded community organization held weekend parades to precede Black rodeo competitions in rural outposts around the state, in places like Tatums, Clearview and Drumright. 'Okmulgee was always the last rodeo of the year,' he said. 'It was like our Super Bowl.' Situated 40 miles south of Tulsa, the Okmulgee Roy LeBlanc Invitational Rodeo is among the country's largest Black sporting events, according to event producer Kenneth LeBlanc. In 1956, LeBlanc's father Roy and grandfather Charles were among the founders of what was then called the Okmulgee County Roundup Club. 'Black people couldn't get into White rodeos,' said Marcous Friday, who has been the Okmulgee event's announcer for two decades. 'That's why they started the rodeo. Who would have thought that 70 years later, it's still going?' An old-school tradition Okmulgee was among a patchwork of Black rodeo circuit events that thrived in the 1950s and 1960s throughout the Texas Gulf Coast region and the area around Tulsa, according to Keith Ryan Cartwright, author of 'Black Cowboys of Rodeo: Unsung Heroes from Harlem to Hollywood and the American West.' 'A lot of Black rodeo cowboys got their start in one of those two areas,' said Cartwright, who now serves as assistant general manager of the Nashville Stampede, a pro bull riding team. 'Maybe they weren't from there, but they would migrate there in order to compete regularly.' Nearly an hour to the west, the Boley (Oklahoma) Rodeo is the oldest of all Black rodeos, dating back to 1903 – but with several interruptions along the way. Okmulgee has clung to its annual tradition like a bull rider refusing to be bucked off. 'This is the 70 th year, and there's no asterisk,' Cartwright said. 'They even found a way to have it in 2020." The 2025 event features more than 200 competitors, including dozens of calf ropers, team ropers, steer wrestlers and barrel racers. The atmosphere bears little resemblance to the big-money, corporate-sponsored spectacles broadcast on television. 'It's not some multimillion-dollar production,' Cartwright said. 'It's old-school.' 'When they come back to Black rodeo, there's a home for them' The rodeo's inaugural run was held north of town on leased land owned by the local White roundup club, Tipton said. When the club saw the event's success and significantly raised its rates the next year, the organizers of the budding Black rodeo decided it was time to find their own venue and bought 40 acres south of town, he said. That's where the Okmulgee Invitational rodeo was held until 1991, he said, when the all-Black event moved to the Bob Arrington Rodeo Arena, owned by the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. By that time Tipton was starting to compete himself, riding bulls and wrestling steers. In 1998, he was named the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association's bull riding and overall rookie of the year. Coming up in the pro ranks, Tipton said, fellow Black cowboys were a rare sight. Even now, he said, when he goes to events on the East or West coasts, 'they're like, 'Wow. Black cowboys.' They see White cowboys competing on TV every day.' Among the barriers, Tipton said, are finances and unfamiliarity with the logistical strategies necessary to qualify for the national finals, which are based on prize money won throughout the year. Competitors must navigate a network of seasonal events held across the country to finish among the top 15 qualifiers in their respective categories. 'There's so many Black cowboys who should be making tons of money,' Tipton said. 'A lot don't know the business side. So when they come back to Black rodeo, there's a home for them.' When he found success as a rookie and hit the pro circuit, Tipton said, he didn't return to the Black rodeo circuit for several years. But he always made sure to return for Okmulgee. 'The Jackie Robinson of rodeo' He wasn't the only one. Many of the Black rodeo greats throughout the years have frequented Okmulgee, among them Myrtis Dightman, often referred to as 'the Jackie Robinson of rodeo.' 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'He thought, there's always going to be a judge that isn't going to let me win an event, but if over the course of a season I go to more events than anyone else, all my 2 nd places and 4 th places will get me there,' Cartwright said. 'He hustled and was very methodical.' In 1967 and 1968, Dightman finished among the three or four top-ranked bull riders in the world. While he never won the sport's gold buckle, Dightman knew he had accomplished something special, Cartwright said. 'I can't stress enough how good he had to be to finish third at a time when our country was facing the racial animus it did,' he said. 'He said to me, 'I wanted to be a world champion but I never were a world champion, but I was a world champion as a man.' He wasn't bragging on himself. What he was saying was that he saw something that hadn't been done and he wanted to do it and did everything he could to do it. I just find him to be heroic.' Legends of the sport In February, Tipton and Friday teamed up to produce their second annual National Black Cowboy Rodeo Awards and Gala in Oklahoma City. 'We've honored all the old cowboys the last two years,' Tipton said. Dightman, now 90, was among them; so was Charles Sampson, the former kid from Watts, California, who with Dightman's mentorship became the first Black bull rider to win a rodeo world title, in 1982. Both have been among the luminaries who polished their craft at Okmulgee. 'Myrtis and Charlie are legends,' Cartwright said. 'Not just among Black cowboys. They're legendary rodeo cowboys, period.' Before a bull rider's bucking chute opens, there is someone there to tighten the rope he'll use to hold on to for the duration of the ride, and riders are notoriously picky about who gets to do it, Cartwright said. 'When Charlie won the world title in the 10 th round, Myrtis was there and Charlie had him pull his bull rope for him,' he said. 'For him to wave off the guy who would normally pull his rope and let Myrtis do it goes to show that Charlie understood the significance of his moment and that the road to that moment was paved by Myrtis.' It's on that foundation that today's young Black cowboys will build on when they compete this weekend in Okmulgee. 'Okmulgee originated at a time when it was needed,' Cartwright said. 'There was nowhere else for them to go. It's a historic event.'
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